OLAFSEN AND POVELSEN's 



OF THE HEAT OF THIS CLIMATE. 



As the cold of whiter is of long duration, the heat of summer 

 is subject to variations. It has been remarked that at the end 

 of June, w ater was frozen in the night, though on the preceding 

 day the thermometer was at 70°. It is generally, when exposed 

 to the open air, at 80 and 90° ; but it does not remain long at 

 these points. Mr. Childrey, in his " Natural Rarities of Mid- 

 dlesex/' as well as other writers, assert, that the greatest heat 

 of the air in summer is between one and two in the afternoon ; 

 but their observations will not apply to this district, nor, generally 

 speaking, to the whole climate of Iceland. It has often been 

 observed, that the mercury, which continued to rise till noon, 

 afterwards fell; and it is known, that the slightest change in the 

 air or even a simple gust of wind is sufficient to produce a va- 

 riation in the heat. 



WEIGHT OF THE AIR. 



This is very unequal and various ; the difference that has been 

 remarked in the barometer between its highest ascent and lowest 

 fall, has been only two inches. In the space of five years it 

 was only once observed at two inches and three quarters. Our 

 travellers state, that they twice witnessed very sudden and alto- 

 gether singular changes in the barometer, 



METEORS. 



It rarely thunders in these countries^ and then mostly in winter : 

 the other extraordinary meteors are even less frequent. When 

 the winds blow strong, the air is heavy and large flakes of snow 

 fall, a faint light is perceptible in the lower atmosphere ; but it 

 speedily disappears. There is also a kind of will o 7 the wisp, 

 that follows persons in the fields; but it seldom occurs in this 

 country; though scarcely a night passes without an aurora 

 borealis of innumerable colours which make the most beautiful 

 appearance, 



OF THE MTSTOUR, 



When the atmosphere is suddenly overcast beyond the moun- 

 tains to the east of Mosfell-Sweit and becomes brown and black, 

 it is an indication of an approaching storm from the E. or S. E. 

 The wind succeeds in about one or two hours after the above- 

 mentioned appearance, and this obscurity lasts from a day to a 

 day and a half : the inhabitants call the phenomenon Mistour. 

 The impetuosity of the wind speedily carries beyond the ex- 

 tremity of the diocese, the cloud of dust that obscured the air ; 

 and as soon as it is perceived by the sailors, they begin to take 

 their precautions. This phenomenon occurs every time that ?i 



